Thinking on the cold
by Venarti
Summary: Terrable title, better story. I hope. I just thought this up whilst walking home one night in the cold. Finished, at least. Enjoy! HitsuHina.
1. Chapter 1

It was a cold day in the Soul Society. Unusually cold, in fact. Some might go as far as to say extremely cold. Considering that the summer solstice was only a week past, most of the shinigami were flummoxed as to why.

The answer, of course, was known to just one person. Toshiro Hitsugaya, for once mercifully free of paperwork, sat atop the roof of the tallest building in the Seireitai, the Senzaikyu, and brooded. His dark mood affected the standing hemisphere of spirit particles that collected under the sekki-sekki 'lid' the defensive walls created. Since that selfsame wall had been raised almost permanently to stop the entrance of Hollows into the sacred home of the shinigami, and more and more often those shinigami were training inside the wall's perimeter, all the spare, wasted and unused spirit energy rose above the city and gathered together. It formed clouds of undifferentiated power, far too high to be seen under normal conditions.

The effect of Toshiro's loosely contained power was to cool the massive, invisible energy cloud, causing it to descend onto the Seireitai. Normally, this time of year was dawn-to-dusk sunlight, not a cloud in the sky. Now, a glimpse of the sun was a rare thing, bitter winds biting at unprotected skin. No rain or snow fell – it was still as dry as normal summer – which may have alleviated the worst effects of the weather, but it was not to be.

Whether or not Toshiro was aware of this was debatable. Whether or not he cared was obvious – he was sitting in glorious sunshine, above the sub-zero cloud. Why should he care that he was freezing out the entire society? He was far too focused on his own worries to pay the slightest attention to anyone else's. Even now, he would talk to the only person who knew where he was with reluctance.

_I'm a captain. I can't allow myself such distractions._

_**Sure you can. Look at Shun-**_

_I am not Shunsui._

_**Fine. Look at Byakuya.**_

_Married. No children, wife died and the man's morose forever._

_**You don't give an inch.**_

It was hard to tell, for Toshiro, what he could hear most in Hyorinmaru's ethereal voice – admiration for his stubbornness, or frustration at the same.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: I would have had this up yesterday, but I didn't. Sorry folks. But it's here now, so enjoy. Hopefully.

The cold kept biting as Hinamori fought on, battling for every step. Even with hat, gloves, scarf and one of Matsumoto's winter coats, she could hardly hear herself thing for the chattering of her teeth. The wind was funneling down the street, nearly blowing her off her feet. She ducked around a corner and, momentarily freed from the wind's grasp, glanced up at the street sign. Through the thin layer of frost she could just make out...

"Second division? Oh no..."

She slumped against the wall and held her head in her hands. The Tenth was all the way over the other side of the city, and if she asked Soi Fon for help, she would get nothing but scorn. She had lent against the wall for only a few heartbeats when a voice sounded from the direction she had been traveling in.

"Who goes the- Oh, it's you, Lieutenant. What brings you to my division in such weather?"

Momo turned around to find the petite captain of second division looking worriedly at her from a pace or two away.

"I- I was trying to get to Tenth. I, um, appear to have taken, ah, a wrong turn somewhere..."

"Evidently. You're on the wrong side of the city."

Momo didn't reply, but hung her head and waited for a tirade of how a shinigami should always pay attention, know where she was and was going, and so on until her ears dropped off from boredom and frostbite. She was, therefore, rather surprised to see the whole world _move _and resolve itself as the interior of Soi Fon's private office. She fell backward, only to be stopped by the presence of a chair. Soi Fon seated herself rather more decorously on the other side of the wide oak-wood desk.

"Momo. Look at me. I know you, and it's not like you to get lost. So tell me... why?"

And at that something inside Momo went 'snap'. She shuddered, and started to cry just a little. She just knew what Soi Fon's reaction would be... and was surprised for the second time today. She felt Soi Fon, the irritable captain that never seemed to relent, hug her and was to tired and upset to do anything but cry onto her shoulder.

They stayed there for just under ten minutes, Momo crying into Soi Fon's kimono, Soi Fon patting Momo's back and muttering soothing nothings. Omaeda stationed himself outside the office, discouraging anyone who attempted to disturb his captain and her guest. Soon enough, Momo lifted her head to look into Soi Fon's eyes.

"O-okay, captain. I'm all right now."

"Then tell me what's wrong."

"Well, you see... I've been thinking, and, well..."

"Yes?"

"When Aizen was, you know, with us... I thought I might be in love with him."

Words started to tumble out of Momo's mouth, whether she wanted them to or not. She saw the dark look that passed over Soi Fon's face at the mention of the traitor, but kept going nonetheless.

"After he left, I felt awful, and not because I was injured. It felt... horrible. But now... I think I'm definitely over him. Because... I realized that I was never in love with him. I was always in love with...someone else."

Soi Fon smiled thinly, looking down on Momo's head. It was good to hear that she was finally over Aizen, but that didn't explain what was upsetting her now.

"The thing is, the thing is that I told him what I felt and he said, he said..."

The rest of the sentence was drowned out by a fresh wave of sobs.

"What? What did he say?" Soi Fon's appetite for gossip and interrogation instincts had the question out of her mouth before she had really thought it through. She berated herself even as she pieced together Momo's reply, punctured as it was by continuous sobbing.

"He, he said that he was a captain, so he couldn't afford such meaningless distractions."


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note: This happens to be a bit of a nothing chapter. Sorry. I promise to do better next chapter, really.

"Meaningless distractions, eh? Well, I doubt he could have truly meant that... Anyway, let's get you back to the Fifth, shall we?"

Soi Fon had the kernel of a plan forming. Why, she had no idea, except she rather liked Momo. Which was fairly odd in itself, all things considered.

"O-ok then..."

The weather hadn't gotten any better when they ventured out. If anything, it was even more oppressively cold, the wind that much more biting. Even so, it seemed to Momo to take only a few minutes to get to the Fifth division barracks, whereas she had struggled for almost an hour to get from here to Second.

"Right. If I leave you here, you'll be alright? I have some work to attend to."

"O-of course, Captain! Please don't worry about me – I'm much better now!"

Momo and Soi Fon both knew that wasn't the case – despite being wrapped up to resemble a furry beach ball, Momo was still shivering and her face was covered in frozen tears. Soi Fon charitably decided, however, to attribute these to the howling wind that fetched up against the front of Fifth's barracks. She bid Momo a good day and left, staying only long enough to make sure Momo went inside. Then she ran as fast as her kido would carry her back to the Second's barracks and started yelling orders.

"Get the sekki-sekki climbing kit! Now!"

"Captain? Why-"

"Don't ask why, you fool, just do it!"

It was barely twelve minutes later when Soi Fon rushed toward the Shrine of Penitence and ran straight into Jushiro Ukitake. The shock of seeing the permanently-ill old man outside in such weather, combined with her shortness of breath, momentarily robbed Soi Fon of the power of speech. Jushiro managed to pre-empt her before she could draw a decent breath.

"Captain Fon! Are you planning to break into the shrine with all that gear?"

"Not into it. I just need to get to the top, and this weather makes it much more difficult."

"Why would you want to do tha-"

"I can't really say. Special Ops stuff. Top secret." Normally, Soi Fon hated people who used the mystery of Second to cover up their activities, but now it seemed useful.

"I see. I appear to be at a loose end now, so if you need any assistance..."

"Actually, you might be able to help... You'll certainly be more apt at this than my good-for-nothing lieutenant. Come on."

They both ran the few dozen meters to the point that Soi Fon had picked out as easiest to scale, back when she was in the Academy. _It turns out that pessimism pays off. Excellent._

"Here. You stay on the floor and hold on to that rope. If I fall off the wall, that thing will be my only real hope, so don't you dare let go. I'm going all the way up so this could take about an hour. Still up for this?"

"Well, this spot does appear to be out of the wind. I'm sure I'll be fine. Get going before the Captain-General catches us, yeah?"

Halfway up the building, Soi Fon realized that the tallest building in the soul society could not, logically, enjoy the cover provided by other buildings of its entire height. Not only could she be seen by anyone who dared look up – though that was unlikely in this weather – and was being blown about by the wind. The wind, which was getting worse as she ascended. And the temperature was dropping, causing her breath to hang around in small, misty clouds. The ice on the building that had made climbing harder and harder since the journey had begun was thicker and smoother up here. But still, she struggled on.

_It's a pity that I couldn't have taken the stairs. Stupid regulations, need a damned permit to climb a damned building... I'm going to kill someone if there's no-one up here, and if there is I think might end up killing them..._


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note: This would have been up sooner, but I recently discovered a horde of games I've not played in nearly a decade. These have, naturally, taken up all my time. But enough excuses.

By the time Soi Fon reached the top of the building, dusk had fallen. She could tell because, for the last four meters of her climb, she could see the stars. The lip of the building presented the last minor challenge. By this point, the second division captain was so thoroughly irritated that it was all she could do not to blast it with the highest kido she could cast. Instead, she chose the safer, less destructive and less immediately satisfying option of leaping around the edge, using air for traction. She took a moment to calm herself down. She knew, at a bedrock level, that if she talked to anyone like this she would probably try to kill them.

Rested, she cast about of the one person whom she had deduced to be here. Toshiro Hitsugaya.

_Lo and behold, there he is. Sleeping like a little..._

Perhaps it was her bad mood from the climb, or perhaps it was the memory of Momo's face when they had been outside the Fifth. Either way, Soi Fon decided to give Toshiro the wake-up of his life. Literally and metaphorically.

It took several moments for Toshiro to wake up fully. He was tired, having had only a few minutes sleep in the last twelve hours, and the right side of his ribcage was throbbing with pain. He unclenched his eyes, hoping to be dreaming or something, and saw clouds. Before, he had always liked seeing clouds when he woke up. Just from the other side. Now, not five meters beneath him, was the random, swirly pattern of the very top of a cloud. Toshiro moaned once, very, very quietly.

"Listen up good, you. You have put me to a great deal of inconvenience today. I am therefore not in a charitable mood. Make me any angrier and you'll see those clouds from much, much closer. Understand?"

Toshiro, still rattled with fear, nodded.

"Good. Now, to start with you can tell me when a Lieutenant is 'meaningless'."

"What?"

"You heard."

"I don't know! When they're not doing their duties?"

"How about when they can't even see straight for crying?"

"What are you talking about?"

Today just seemed to be getting worse and worse of Toshiro. The ache in his side was resolving itself into what felt like a bruise the size of Kenpachi's hairdo, he was still looking down onto a terrifying vista of cloud-tops and he was being questioned to no apparent end by this mystery person, who he could never quite identify.

"I mean, Momo Hinamori is now sitting in her quarters crying, unable to do the slightest thing, because you rejected her like a blunt knife! My word, Hitsugaya... Here was me thinking that you always wanted the best for her, and now you leave her helpless as she was when Aizen left."

At that point, Soi Fon had to wonder if she had gone too far. Toshiro's spirit pressure exploded, nearly throwing her off his back and causing the clouds below to swirl and darken, as if reflecting Toshiro's mood. Lightning danced around below them, never reaching up above the level of the clouds.

Then Toshiro sighed.

"Perhaps I was too harsh on her... maybe I should go and see her... If, of course, you'll let me up, Captain Fon?"

"Fine. How did you guess?"

"How many captains can get up here, subdue me and talk without revealing anything about themselves through their voice? Plus, you're the only person in the whole of the Soul Society who doesn't call me Toshiro."

"Right. Need a lift down?"


	5. Chapter 5

The landed rather harder than he expected. The disgruntled child prodigy rose from his undignified sprawl and took stock of his surroundings. He was in front of the Fifth division barracks. Or at least, that was where he should be. The bitingly cold wind was making his eyes steam.

_Perhaps Soi Fon was right. This weather is nasty. Did I really cause it?_

_**Enough procrastinating. Get on with it.**_

It seemed that even his sword was out to get him today. Toshiro sighed, squared his shoulders, and walked toward the door. He noticed, distractedly, that the large 'five' symbol on the door was looking a little worse for wear. Perhaps it was the weather, he decided.

Immediately inside the building, the howling of the wind faded to a low murmur and waves of heat assailed Toshiro like over-friendly puppies, surrounding him. He began to feel ever so slightly better for being out of the cold. The duty officer looked up, and Toshiro could see that her expression was a mixture of nervous fear, awe and - for some reason - dislike.

"Captain Hitsugaya. How can the Fifth division help you today?"

"I need to see Lieutenant Hinamori." Keeping a formal tone might prevent rumors spreading and get him to Momo faster. Or so Toshiro thought.

"I'm sorry, sir. Lieutenant Hinamori is indisposed. I'll tell you when she becomes available."

"That's not good enough. This is urgent."

"I can take a message to her, if you would prefer, but she has told me to admit no-one for the rest of the day. I'm sorry, sir, but I have my orders."

"Unacceptable. This message comes straight from the Captain-General, high priority. It cannot wait." Toshiro was lying through his teeth, something he normally never would have contemplated. But this was important, to him at least.

For a moment the woman struggled with the choice, but an order from the Captain-General did override a lieutenant's order. _As does a Captain's. Maybe she had special orders to keep ME out..._

He strode past the defeated-looking lieutenant and didn't stop until he reached the door to Momo's quarters. He took one deep, steadying breath, and opened the door. There, curled up on her bed was Momo Hinamori. She appeared to be asleep.

"Momo?" It always did to check, right?

"Toshiro? What do you want now?" Ah. Awake it was.

"I... wanted to apologize for yesterday. I didn't mean to upset you..."

"Really. I'm sure you didn't." Something wasn't ringing true to Toshiro. This didn't sound like Momo at all.

"Mo-"

"Not this time, Toshiro. We've been friends for a long, long time now. How can you not see me the way I see you?" All of a sudden, Momo was sitting up, yelling at Toshiro, tears re-tracing well-worn tracks down her face.

"I guess... I don't know. I can't think of a single reason." All the layers of logic, the emotional padding, were gone in an instant. Toshiro wondered where they had gone.

"Then why can't you say you love me? I managed!"

"I-I suppose, when you put it that way..."

"Well?"

"I love you, Momo Hinamori."

A/N: Well, an abrupt ending, but I was getting bored with this. I'm already starting on a new fic. Thank you all for staying with this story so long! Until next time...


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